This summer has been a quiet one. I haven't got the chance to start listening to Phish's tour before it ended neither the several vinyl records I bought since April. But I've read quite a lot and some of the books I dove into have been related to our band.

It's a beautiful coffee-table kind of book with a lot of beautiful pictures. Seriously, the production of the concerts and the talent of the photographers have done wonders. I received it in the morning of the day I flew to my vacation in Morocco, so I have left to dive deeper in those lights.

After a great Fare The Well and a spectacular Summer tour, the end of the year sounded a little too quite. But that was before I received lots of good LPs to spin...

New Year's Eve 1995:Live At Madison Square Garden

Originaly released on 3 CD in 2005, Phish's New Year's Eve 1995 show made its way again to independent record stores on 6 LPs during the Record Store Day on 18th april 2015. This huge boxset is limited to 4500 copies and costs an arm. Of course, no store in France had it and it popped pretty quickly on eBay. Due to its already hish-sky price, scalpers can't charge much more but I've been reluctant to buy one of them over here. I waited several month to see if it would appear on Dry Goods but in september, I've been told by my contact at Phish Inc. that it won't be sold there. Thanksfully, this person managed to got me one of the remaning copies and sold it to me ! I finally received it on the 20th november, around the same time as the other vinyls bellow. But surprisingly, it ended on the Phish merchandise site on 3th december ! Grab it while you can !

The boxset is rather simple but quite nice. With six 12" discs, it's huge and, of course, heavy. It's also my first and only 6 LPs boxset. My second biggest one is David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk with 5 LPs.All pictures and texts are taken from the original CD boxset but re-arranged on six sleeves and a leaflet. A download card is also included and, if you're lucky (if you're the first one actually), you can use mine : just find it on the pictures. One strange thing : the image used by Phish in february to hint at this release (a green square with the words "Side K : you Enjoy Myself"), isn't part of the boxset at all. Actually, the only green things on it are the tittle's letters and side numbers on the outside of the box.

I haven't got the chance to isolate myself for more than three and a half hours yet to proper listen to the music. I haven't listened to the show for many year actually as I haven't been impressed the first time I heard it. Maybe my expectations were too high knowing that Rolling Stone Magazine named it one of the "Greatest Concerts of the '90s", or maybe I wasn't in a good mood...

Like most of us, I discovered Jennifer Hartswick with TAB, but the girl really need more recognition for his solo work. All of her 3 albums are absolutely great, very jazzy and funky, and her contribution to Everyone Orchestra's first studio album makes it feel like one of her own.

As strange as it may seems, for someone like me who discovered Phish in 1997 and who downloaded countless tapes for the 97/98 era, I'm totally new to this show. I've never heard of the "Tweezabella" from Set 2 before last week, so it's with a virgin state of mind that I woke up this morning at around 6 AM to download my daily phix.

The first set starts oddly like a reversed set 2 with Golgi Apparatus and Run Like An Antelope. The second song already sets the tone for the night when you didn't expect it with a 10 minutes improvisation that goes seamlessly from funk to rock.Train Song provides the first rest before the boys alternate big funky combos (Bathtub Gin > Foam and Fee > Maze) with fast rocking numbers (Sample in a Jar and Cavern).The quiet little jam out of Fee merges into the intro of a Trey-leaded Maze that goes in every directions and ends in a big peak before coming back to the quiet outro. Roller-coaster style.

I'll have "a handfull" of boxset to give away in the next weeks, so stay tuned while enjoying summer tour !

By 1994, Phish was well established as an international touring act and already well known to a growing group of hardcore fans. Amidst a tour packed with highlights - it was this summer that convinced the band to start multi-tracking their live shows - this show was recorded for posterity on 2-track DAT. Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place but Chicago '94 is an example of just that.

Paul Languedoc's stereo soundboard mixes re-mastered by Fred Kevorkian carry the intensity and intricacy of these special shows to listeners' ears eighteen years later. Chicago '94 contains nearly six hours of music performed at both shows for a total of 43 songs, including material from the UIC soundchecks. The shows are presented in a 6-CD box set with new artwork by longtime collaborator and Chicagoan, Jim Pollock.

This morning, I listened for the first time for the Mike's Groove played at the beginning of the first Hampton show and my ears actually melted ! It's so full of groove and funk ! Mike's Song only has 4 distinctive jams, one of it based on a heavy Black-Eyed Katty tease ! The segue to Hydrogen is so smooth you don't hear it coming.

In the midst of their legendary fall 1997 tour, Phish stopped in Dixie for two shows in Virginia and one in North Carolina. The 1997 Hampton Coliseum shows were the band's first two-night stand at Hampton Coliseum – a venue they have played a total of fifteen times including a two-night stand in 1998 (released as Hampton Comes Alive) and a trio of reunion shows in 2009. The shape and feel of the venue have earned it the nickname “The Mothership” among fans. The next show after Hampton 1997 took place at Lawrence Joel Veteran's Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina - another familiar venue where Phish also performed in 1994, 1995 and 1998.

These three shows were a memorable triad for the band and fans. They are among the most requested shows for soundboard release from the Phish Archives and make up a compelling slice of the twenty-two-show tour that stretched from Las Vegas to Albany. The Hampton/Winston-Salem 97 shows were packed with notable renditions of classics including “Split Open And Melt”, “AC/DC Bag”, “Slave To The Traffic Light”, “Mike’s Song”, “Halley's Comet”, “Tweezer”, “Run Like An Antelope”, “Stash” and “Bathtub Gin”. The band also showcased a wide variety of newer covers from the debut of the Rolling Stones' “Emotional Rescue” to Del McCoury's “Beauty Of My Dreams”, Jimi Hendrix's “Izabella”, Clifton Chenier's “My Soul” and even an impromptu take on War's “Low Rider” (sandwiched inside a blazing “Down With Disease”). The Hampton/Winston-Salem 97 shows also showcased newer originals like “Dogs Stole Things”, “Ghost”, “Piper” and the brand-new-for-fall instrumental “Black-Eyed Katy”, which is the only song repeated on the release. More than what was played, the sheer heights of these performances are what made them special and built their acclaim.

The Hampton/Winston-Salem 97 shows featured Phish at an emotional peak of execution and flow. The band was hooking up at every turn, taking chances and dropping musical surprises for each other and the audience. Throughout these shows, Phish seized most every opportunity to lift and expand their repertoire while maintaining a raging dance party at every turn. The audience magnified this explosive energy, spinning the shows into a ball of psychedelic, funk-infused live Phish for the ages. Paul Languedoc’s stereo “soundboard” mix re-mastered by Fred Kevorkian funnels the energy of these special shows to listeners' ears nearly fifteen years later. Hampton/Winston-Salem 97 contains all the music played over these three shows for a total of 45 songs - over 8 hours of music - including never-before-heard material from soundchecks at both venues. The 7-CD boxed set (also available as downloads at livephish.com) slated for release December 6, 2011 is a must-own collection for any Phish fan.

In response to the recent earthquake and tsunami that the people of the northeastern part of Japan have endured JEMP Records is releasing "7/31/99, Field of Heaven, Fuji Rock Festival, Niigata, JAPAN" as benefit CD & download at Phish Dry Goods and livephish.com to benefit Peace Winds America http://peacewindsamerica.org. 100% of the funds Peace Winds America collects for disaster relief will go to support operations through their sister organization, Peace Winds Japan. Relief operations began March 15th and are currently underway in Miuyagi Prefecture, where Peace Winds is on the ground providing food, clothing, medicines and temporary shelter to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

7/31/99 was recorded by Paul Languedoc and mastered by Fred Kevorkian. We'd like to thank Fred and the folks at Nugs.net and Music Today for donating their efforts to this cause.

The expected release date of the download at livephish.com will be April 15th. The expected ship date of the CD will be May 10th.

Immediately following their 1999 U.S. summer tour, Phish traveled abroad for their first ever shows in Japan. Fuji Rock Festival took place on multiple stages and the festival had specially designed the "Field Of Heaven" stage for Phish to play three consecutive nights of complete, two-set headline shows.

This release features Phish’s entire show from July 31, 1999 – the middle, Saturday night as well as “What’s The Use?” from their soundcheck on July 29th. The July 31st show crackled with energy, intermingling classic and new material with an exploratory vibe that meshed with the atmosphere of respect and beauty.

Set one had many high points including standout performances of “My Friend, My Friend”, “Back On The Train”, “Limb By Limb” and “Character Zero”. Set two started in the stratosphere with a “2001” > “David Bowie” opener that proved the most experimental music played at Fuji Rock transposed against the gentle beauty of “Wading In The Velvet Sea”. Set two also featured one of the all-time great renditions of “Prince Caspian”, a smoking “Fluffhead” and mystical “Simple”. The encore provided a chance for friend and fellow musician Nawang Khechog to address the crowd about Tibetan human rights and perform with Fish on vacuum for a meditative jam with Fish and with the whole band on flute for a special “Brian And Robert”. Japan proved a perfect host for Phish, the Field Of Heaven has survived ever since as part of Fuji Rock Festival and Phish has maintained a strong connection with Japan, weaving Japanese lyrics into “The Meatstick” as recently as New Year’s Eve 2010-2011.

In the past, charitable downloads at LivePhish.com have raised over $100,000 for four non-profits: the Harbor House of New Jersey (The Headphones Jam), the New Orleans Musician's Clinic, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fund (Katrina Relief) and the American Red Cross (Haiti Relief). Additionally, the Mockingbird Foundation receives funding on an on-going basis from the proceeds at LivePhish.com.